The Evisceration of Rural Japan part 1

Rural Japan

Yesterday the last train ran along the Sanko Line stopping one more time at my local station. It was one of the prettiest train lines in Japan, winding 90k up the Gonokawa River to Miyoshi. I took it regularly downstream to Gotsu, and several times a year I took the first train in the morning up to Miyoshi and then on down to Hiroshima. It has been replaced with a bus service, at 130% increase in price.

It has been no fun though for the past year or so since they announced it's closure. Extra carriages were put on to cater to the crowds who wanted to ride the train that was going to disappear, an the last few weeks it has been like a Tokyo commuter train with barely any standing room.

Somebody told me that they had read in the local paper that it was the foreign shareholders that caused the closure, but a quick check online reveals that less than 15% of the shares are held by foreign entities. Blaming foreigners is a tradional part of Japanese culture. At the station there were outsiders and locals waiting to see the last train. Special tickets at 4,000 yen a pop had sold out long ago. Everyone was handed flags and as the train approached a megaphone barked out "Stand up!..... Wave!!!"..... shades of North Korea.........

Seasons Greetings

Every year in December and January I take advantage of the cheap travel provided by the Seishun 18 train ticket and head off for a walk or two. This year was no different.

I took the early morning train from the local station and headed up the Gonokawa River towards Hiroshima. The line will be closing in March of 2018 so this was probably the last time I will be taking this particular train.

When the sun comes up an hour or two later the train is up around kasabuchi and the winter mists filling the valley begins to burn off, making for pretty scenes.

I'm not sure how many people ever read this blog, but to those of you who do, seasons greetings to you and yours.........

More Avian manholes

It turns out that birds are quite a common design element in Japanese manhole designs.
Previous posts showing some can be found here. and here.

This first one is from the small island of Teshima in the Akinada Sea off of Hiroshima, and the bird is a cormorant.

This one is from Musashi Town, now a part of Kunisaki City in Oita. It depicts a pair of Mejiro, Japanese White-Eyes. For a photo of real Mejiro see this post

Sanko Town, now a part of Nakatsu City in Oita has a pair of Japanese Bush warblers, Uguisu, in Japanese. Strangely the town bird is the Mejiro.

Nago Town on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa features a pair of Ryukyu Mejiro.

Ishigaki City on the same island features an Akashobin, Ruddy Kingfisher in English. Common throughout east and southeast Asia it is quite rare in Japan.